Basic process of manufacturing iron and steel



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JAMES HENDERSON, OE BELLEEONTE, PENNSYLVANIA.

BASIC PROCESS OF MANUFACTURING, mow AND STEEL.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 283,783, dated August 28, 1883.

Application filed July 520, 1883. (No specimens.) I

To aZZ whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, J nuns HENDERSON, of Bellefonte, in the county of Centre and State of Pennsylvania, (formerly of New York city,) have invented a new and useful Improvement in Basic Processes of Manufacturing Iron and Steel; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the same.

This invention has for its object the removal of phosphorus from liquid cast-iron by the use of air and steam applied in blasts or jets in converters, furnaces, or vessels after the silicious slags produced by use of air in desiliconizing the metal have been removed.

In application filed June 14, 1883, No. 100,805, I have described a process for treating iron and steel, of which this is a division.

In carrying out this invention I may use the ordinary Bessemer converter or a reverberatory furnace, in which the metal is or may be treated by jets or blasts of air blown into the metal. I line the converter or furnace with some suitable basic or non-silicious material, which may be lime, magnesia, or magnesian lime, applied, preferably, in the form of burned brick but other modes of applying these substances, for which Letters Patent have been issued to me, may be used.

The iron to be treated maybe the crude iron, rich in carbon and silicon-such as is generally used in the acid process-say containing two to three per cent. of silicon, three and onehalf to four per cent. of carbon, and too much phosphorus to make useful steel by that process. It is preferred also that the metal contains enough manganese-say from three to five per eent.to effect the production of steel without the use of spiegeleisen at the end of the blowing.

The iron may be taken direct from the blastfurnace to the converter, or melted in a cupola and poured into the "converter, and blown in the usual way with air, preferably without steam, during the first period, or that of. the operation whichis known as the desiliconization period, or when the silicon is reduced to about or below five-tenths per cent. At the end of this period the converter is turned down and the slags poured from it. After pouring the slags from the converter the airblast is applied and the converter raised to its usual position when at work. Steam is admitted into the blast-pipe with the air and forced with the air intothe metal, and is there decomposed by the heat into its elementary constituents, which act upon the metal and dephosphorize it. The steam, with the air, may be applied during the entire remainder of the process of decarbonization, and afterward, if

desired. I prefer, in order not to cool the metal, so as to render it difficult to pour, to apply the steam in a regular measured proportion to the quantity of air used, which proportion may be obtained by pumping a measured quantity of water by apump attached to the blast-engine which supplies the air, so that each revolution of the engine pumps a measured quantity of water, and also a measured quantity of air, as described in my Patent No. 281,163, July 10, 1883. The water is fed to a steam-boiler, preferably composed of wrought iron pipes arranged in a coil, so that each revolution of the engine pumps relative measured proportions of air and water, which is converted into steam, preferably superheated, be-

fore admixturewith the air in its passage into the converter or the air may be introduced separately from the steam into the metal, but simultaneously. The proportions which I prefer to use of water converted into steam is about three-fourths to one cubic foot of water and about seven thousand to nine thousand five hundred cubic feet of air to each ton of metal to be treated after its previous desiliconization with air. The decarbonizing of the metal produces oxide of iron, and the wear of the metal upon the lining removes enough of it to render the slag basic that is formed after the desiliconization, and pouring from the vessel the silicious slags, so that it is not necessary to make basic additions to the converter during result, as, when phosphorus has been present, it would not leave the metal, and steam was consequently of no advantage over the use of air alone.

The metal, after the blowing or desil-iconization, may be treated with ferro-manganese or spiegeleisen in the usual manner as practiced in the Bessemer process.

What I claimas new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

l. The improvement in the art of manufacturing iron and steel, which consists, first, in subjecting the molten iron in a suitable chamber, lined with a basic or non-silicious material,

to jets of air to desiliconize it; seeond1y,pouring the silicious slags from the chamber; and, thirdly, treating the desiliconized metal with jets or blasts of air and steam to remove the phosphorus. l

2. The improvement in the art of manufacturing iron and steel, which consists, first, in subjecting the molten iron in asuitable chamber lined with a basic or non-silicious material to jets of air to desiliconize it; secondly, pouring the silioious slags from the chamber; third- 

